Branchburg board rejects strip mall for Route 22

BRANCHBURG -- After nearly two years of hearings, Branchburg’s Board of Adjustment rejected a developer’s plans for a strip mall on Route 22.

The project would have been 54,000 square feet of retail commercial space, including a Chimney Rock Inn restaurant by developer Alan Frank of 3331 Route 22 LLC.

During Wednesday night’s hearing, the board struggled with the plan because the 10 acres between France Drive and County Line Road is zoned for industrial space, but already has hotels, homes and a restaurant on it.

Board member Barbara Bye said the project would bring in ratables and uplift the community’s image.

“I don’t want to see cabins and old motels in my town,” she said. “This has single-family residents on it, it has hotels, motels (and) all kinds of crap on it and I think it’s about time we cleaned it up and put something respectable there.”

Board member Christopher Erd was concerned that approving the application would result in the rest of the land being rezoned piece by piece through approved use variances.

He said the fact that the township committee and planning board knew about similar applications, but did not change the zoning on the master plan for the past 17 years, spoke to what the township wanted in that area.

“I think this application really is in nature a rezoning and we’ve seen a lot of these applications on the Route 22 and 28 corridors over the last few years that I’ve been on the board. It’s just one serial application after another trying to rezone this whole area,” he said. “I really think an application like this belongs before the planning board for a master plan change and then to the township committee for a zoning ordinance change.”

In an effort to get the project approved Frank, also the owner of Chimney Rock Inn, offered to shrink development plans down to 34,000 square feet, but board members said they would not vote on an alternative without seeing an exact plan.

Though there were several murmurs of disapproval when the application failed, the
majority of the crowd applauded.

Linda Cinelli, a Branchburg business owner, said she was disappointed in the board’s decision.

“They needed to let him come back with something with a little less density, if that’s what they’re worried about, but what’s been there now is old, obsolete and not a good expression of the township and how they would like to portray themselves on that strip,” she said.

Arlene Strege, a member of Branchburg Residents Against Inappropriate Development, said she was happy that the board set a precedent by not changing the use of the property.

“We’ve seen so much development there by variance and we really believe the planning board should be deciding these things with the master plan and not on a case by case basis,” she said. “We’re ecstatic, I think it’s an excellent decision.”

Beatrice Vassil, who said she was happy that she wouldn’t have to deal with increased traffic through her neighborhood, agreed.

“If you allow this developer to develop the land in this manner, then surely you’re going to have to allow other developers to do the same with the rest of the land,” she said. “It opens up Pandora’s box and gives fodder to the next developer to say ‘Hey what about me?’”